The proposed career development application for Jessica Markowitz, Ph.D. will take place with the guidance of a strong mentoring team in an academic center, both with established track records of providing career development and trajectories toward independent investigation. Throughout the five year period, career development activities will occur, including meetings with mentors and collaborators, relevant coursework, human subjects training, attendance at relevant lectures, and manuscript development, analyses, and presentations. The research plan of the proposed career development application consists of two studies and the design of an intervention. Study 1 aims to collect qualitative data, using focus groups, regarding the expectations for the development of diabetes-related self-care behaviors and the process of transition to adult care as experienced by 4 groups: adolescents with type 1 diabetes, their parents, and pediatric and adult diabetes medical providers. Study 2 aims to collect quantitative data, in a 1-year observational study, regarding the natural trajectory of the development of diabetes-specific self-care behaviors in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. The project will investigate the differences in self-care behaviors across groups based on pubertal development and the associations of self-care behaviors with demographic, behavioral, and psychosocial variables. Data collected in Studies 1 and 2 along with the current literature will inform the design of an intervention to help adolescents with T1D acquire self-care skills necessary for greater independence and, ultimately, successful transfer to adult care. The intervention design will focus in increasing diabetes self-management skills, family problem-solving, and family communication around diabetes management tasks and decreasing diabetes- specific family conflict. This proposed project will result in a better understanding of the way adolescents with type 1 diabetes develop self-care skills, based on subjective and objective data, and the design of a novel approach to help pediatric patients develop self-care skills in preparation for the transfer from pediatric to adult diabetes care. Future research will empirically test the results of the currently proposed program of investigation regarding the process of transition. This 5-year career development plan aims to equip Dr. Markowitz with the experience and independence necessary for a career in pediatric diabetes behavioral research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application supports the career development of a pediatric behavioral scientist committed to an independent career in clinical investigation. The project incorporates an experienced mentoring team, an institution and environment committed to the development of junior faculty, and a research plan that focuses on the important and timely topic of pediatric transition to adult care. The project will examine the way adolescents with type 1 diabetes develop the self-care skills necessary for successful, independent diabetes care prior to the transfer from pediatric to adult diabetes care providers.